Making its way through North America, Europe, and Australia during March, Usher’s OMG Tour will take in 50 arena performances. Providing sound support, UK hire company Major Tom is providing a Meyer Sound speaker package built around 72 Milo line array loudspeakers and 40 700-HP subwoofers.
The roster also includes a DiGiCo SD7 FOH console, API compressors and Avalon 737 channel strips. Usher’s vocals come through a custom Crown C113a headset via Shure UHF-R wireless and a custom Shure KSM-9 handheld.
For the 27 shows in North America, Major Tom received equipment support from Thunder Audio of Livonia, with Mich Brian Thorene as monitor tech, and Jack Dunnett and David Litchfield Klann as system techs. Veteran engineer Tim Colvard will be at front-of-house: ‘My approach with all mixing projects is to have the vocals on top, clean and clear,’ he says. ‘Once that’s established, proper placement of the instrumentation is my next goal – I try to take the whole set list into consideration to set up the dynamic structure. When the Milo system is properly set up, it is a very transparent and responsive system.’
The system for each arena is configured from a touring inventory that also includes Meyer Sound UPJ-1P VariO and M’elodie line array loudspeakers, all linked by by two Galileo 616 loudspeaker management processors.
‘I’ve used many different systems, and Meyer is the one, for me, with the best vocal clarity,’ says Major Tom’s David ‘Digga’ Vinnicombe, who was the system tech for the US leg. The European dates are handled by Bjoern Seelander.
At monitor world, Major Tom’s Simon Kemp has an Avid (Digidesign) Profile console which feeds 20 Meyer Sound MJF-212A stage monitors. ‘I have hardly any EQ on the MJFs,’ says Kemp. ‘They sound fantastic straight out of the box.’ The foldback system also includes JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers.
Major Tom was invited by Usher’s management to bid on audio production based on the success of other tours with Meyer Sound Milo systems. ‘It’s much like systems we’ve taken out on other arena tours,’ says Major Tom’s Chris Marsh, ‘except for quite a few more subs.’ Other productions that have been supported by Major Tom include Rod Stewart, Donny Osmond, Prince, the Led Zeppelin reunion concert at the O2 arena, as well as Lionel Richie, Jeff Beck and Andrea Bocelli.
